Orange County lawmakers set Valley View public hearing for April 4

Thursday

Mar 20, 2014 at 2:00 AMMar 20, 2014 at 8:55 AM

GOSHEN — After a long, sometimes emotional discussion, Orange County lawmakers agreed Wednesday to hold a public hearing on April 4 on a proposal to transfer the county's 360-bed nursing home to a local development corporation in order to sell it.

BY CHRIS MCKENNA

GOSHEN — After a long, sometimes emotional discussion, Orange County lawmakers agreed Wednesday to hold a public hearing on April 4 on a proposal to transfer the county's 360-bed nursing home to a local development corporation in order to sell it.

The 17-3 vote, which took place around 8 p.m., came with a slight let-up in what had been a 16-day dash toward privatization. Instead of voting on the proposed transfer immediately after the public hearing, as originally planned, Republicans agreed to meet again at an unspecified date to vote.

It was a drama in two acts, stretching more than three hours in a classroom and then the auditorium of the county Emergency Services Center.

Act One took place before the Legislature's Rules, Enactments and Intergovernmental Relations Committee. Lawmakers got their first tutorial there about how the transfer would work and how other counties have used local development corporations to privatize their nursing homes — a new concept for Orange's legislators after three years of clashes over the cost and future of the Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation.

Shawn Griffin, a Harris Beach attorney, told lawmakers that transferring Valley View to a newly formed LDC would put its future in the hands of an appointed board, with no further decisions by the Legislature.

In the interim, the county would continue to fund Valley View, and its employees would remain on the payroll, until the state Department of Health approves the sale to a private operator — which could take six to 18 months after a sale contract is signed, Griffin said.

Act Two was a lengthy debate by the full Legislature, largely about the rush to vote on a proposal County Executive Steve Neuhaus voiced publicly for the first time only a day earlier.

Neuhaus, who has forecast a $60 million budget deficit for 2015, has made privatizing Valley View his top priority, warning that his alternative would be major county layoffs.

"People are rushing through this system to have this vote on April 4, because that is the decision they have made," Jeff Berkman, the Democratic minority leader, said. "I need time to digest it."

Legislature Chairman Steve Brescia, a Montgomery Republican, replied that Moody's Investors Service, which just dropped Orange County's bond rating two notches, might downgrade the county again in June if it hasn't put Valley View into an LDC by then.

"I think we need to do it sooner than later, to let the Valley View employees know if they're going to be public sector or private sector," he said.

Republicans made two concessions. Pressed by Democrat Shannon Wong about the 2 p.m. hearing time the Legislature already had set, which she said would limit attendance, lawmakers agreed the hearing will resume at 5 p.m. on April 4 to accommodate speakers who couldn't come earlier.

The other shift was to delay the votes Brescia planned to hold right after the hearing on turning over Valley View. Republicans initially agreed to move the votes to April 10, but left the date undecided after Democrat Roseanne Sullivan said she couldn't make it then.

Brescia said a draft of the resolution transferring Valley View to an LDC may be given to them on Monday. Unlike past Valley View votes requiring a 14-vote supermajority, an LDC transfer needs only an 11-vote simple majority, making it within reach for Republicans.